Believe
by vegetasbubble
Summary: He saved her from the shallow grave her family buried her in all those months ago. He healed her and fed her and looked after her. But he wasn't Daryl, he could never replace the man who held her heart. So what happens when the two cross paths again and the man who saved her and the man who gave up on her meet face to face? Bethyl AU. (ie. my version of Season 5B)
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All noticeable characters belong to AMC. I own nothing.

Authors Notes: Okay, so I originally posted this idea on tumblr and asked what you guys thought of the idea. Honestly it came to me when Emily posted the picture to her Instagram ACCOUNT about her upcoming music video with Train and this idea just JUMPED out at me and demanded to be written.

Part One

_Gunshots. She remembered the sounds of gunshots. Ringing in her ears and turning her world black in an instant. She hears the screams, the cries of anguish and the feel of the floor beneath her body. She feels herself being lifted, hears someone crying and smells a distinct smell. Him. She smells him. He's holding her against his chest and lifting her. "She's gone," she hears him say and wants to scream that she's not – that she's alive. She just wants to hug him and hell – kiss him. But she doesn't, she can't and she feels herself being carried and hears more screams and more crying._

_Then dirt. She remembers the smell and taste of dirt. Under her SKIN and under her nails, in her mouth and on her FACE. They're burying her! No! No! She's still alive. She wants to scream but can't. She wants to tell them to stop but she can't. She hears groaning – moaning now and its almost there. She's screaming for them to dig her out, she's alive and wants to live. Don't leave her for the walkers._

_No!_

"Beth! Beth honey wake up!" A hand roughly shakes her awake and Beth shoots up from her sleeping position on the barn floor. Riley is beside her, looking down with worried eyes. Beth places a hand above her heart and sighs heavily – she's alive. She's not being buried and left to die. No, that was three years ago. Three years since she was left in a half dug grave. Riley and his group had come across her, killed all the walkers in the field just as one was about to feast on Beth. He had pulled her from the grave and listened for her heartbeat and found it – very faint but there. He had performed CPR and Beth had taken a large breath after about a minute.

He helped her, they all did, mended the wound in her forehead and Riley called her "a lucky devil indeed." He was a little older than her, maybe by five years but the struggle they had all been going through had seemed to age him as he had flecks of grey in his hair. His eyes were blue and he had a dimple in his chin. Beth supposed he was quite good looking but she couldn't speak when he saved her. Three weeks they stayed in that place, helping her recover and GETTING HER BACK on her feet.

Beth didn't talk about her family, about the group who had left her behind to die in that shallow grave. She didn't blame them, not at all and should they ever cross paths again, Beth wanted them to know that. Riley explained that their group had been hiding out in the city before heading out to the country side. Beth had looked around then, noticing they were indeed in the country. They must have brought me out here, she thought to herself. That would have been her sisters idea, or maybe his. Beth shook her head, telling herself to stop thinking about them.

Riley had encouraged her to join their group and when Beth was well enough they left the clearing and started heading north. Beth had surprised them all with her hunting and tracking skills, especially Riley, who who shocked and surprised when she took down a full grown deer with a bow and arrow.

The group had started off strong. Fifteen members in total but slowly, like every other group, they began to loose people. One by one they were picked off – either by the walkers or by themselves. Beth had discovered a married couple who had had enough and killed themselves with their guns. Riley had tried to comfort her that night and Beth had finally told him what happened to her. He had been so angry, wanted to track the bastards down and kill them for leaving her there.

Beth had simply put her hand on his shoulder and kissed him. Riley had been surprised at first before kissing her back and telling her that he loved her. That was a year ago and Beth still hadn't told him she loved him back. After the married couple had died, it was just the two of them and Beth didn't want to say goodbye to another person that she loved. So they kissed and made love but she never told him the words he wanted to hear.

Now, as they were held up in an old rickety barn, thunder and lightning all around them and Beth awoke from another nightmare. Riley held his hand on her shoulder until she calmed down. Slowly, she brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. "Sorry," she whispered, looking into the small fire he had made to keep them warm. It was starting to get cooler at night and Beth supposed it was almost fall.

"Don't be," Riley replied, wrapped his arm over her shoulder and pulling her against him, "I'm always here Beth, remember that." He brushed a small kiss over her forehead and she looked up at him. He smiled down at her and ran his thumb over the scar on her forehead – the one from Dawn – before lowering his mouth to hers in a heated kiss. Beth kissed him back and was about to unbutton his shirt when they heard the sound of banging against the barn doors.

Riley shot up immediately and grabbed the gun he always kept close. Beth grabbed their things and made for the ladder that led up towards the top of the barn. Riley followed behind her and the two crouched down low enough not to be seen but be able to see the ground level.

Beth gripped her knife, knowing full well that walkers couldn't climb ladders but doing it anyway to feel safe. Riley held his hand on the small of her back while he held his gun in the other. They watched silently.

The banging outside soon stopped but they both knew not to move. Banging stopping usually meant someone had taken out the walkers. Sure enough, a minute later the old barn door creaked open and a figure stepped inside. As dark as it was, Beth squinted hard to see the person. The gaps in the barn allowed light from the lightning outside to seep in, flashing over the figure for microseconds.

The figure moved to their campfire and knelt down, held his hand near the fire before standing again and moving his weapon up.

A crossbow. The man below them was wielding a crossbow. Beth felt her heart flutter. No, it couldn't be, not after all this time, she thought to herself and wanted so desperately to JUMP up and call his name.

Riley's hand on her back reminded her where she was and who she was with so she just looked down and continued to watch. The man below them made small movements, towards their ladder and Beth held her breath.

Banging again started on the barn door and the man turned swiftly to aim his crossbow at the barn door. When she saw that movement, she knew. JUMPING from behind the haystack they were hidden behind and ignoring Riley's hissing to her, Beth ran as fast as she could and decended the ladder.

"DARYL!" she yelled, not caring if the walkers heard her. The man in front of her tensed and slowly turned and she was sure for a second that he had tears in his eyes.

"Beth." She ran towards him and launched herself into his arms. He wrapped them around her and they sank to the ground. Her arms wrapped around his neck tightly and his gripped her waist. He was here – Daryl was here and he was holding her.

"Oh God! Daryl!" Beth could feel the tears running down her FACE as she held the man she thought she had lost.

"Darlin'," he whispered into her hair, "are you real?" Beth nodded and whispered over and over that she was. He finally pulled away from her embrace far enough to study her face. He ran his thumb over her lip, over the two scars on her face before finally settling on her hairline. He reached up and brushed her hair out of the way and he gently ran the tip of a calloused finger over the healed scar.

"Told you," she said with a laugh and he hugged her again. They finally parted after a while and Daryl didn't take his eyes off of her.

"How?" he asked, sure that he couldn't say anything else.

"Oh! Riley helped me. Riley is -"

Suddenly a fist came out of no where and slammed into the side of Daryl's FACE. "You fucking bastard!" Riley yelled as Daryl staggered backwards and lifted his hand to his face. He eyed the young man standing near Beth and supposed this was the "Riley" fellow she had spoken about. But why he had punched Daryl in the face was a mystery.

"Riley!" Beth yelled over the thunder and Daryl continued to rub his chin.

"What the hell!" he snapped eyeing the young man, "What the fuck was that for?"

"You left her to die, you motherfucker!" Riley yelled again, launching himself at Daryl once more only to be pulled back by Beth. "You abandoned her! Left her for dead to those things!"

"Riley stop!" Beth shouted, pulling on his arm to try and calm him, "Daryl didn't-"

"Oh Daryl, is it?" Riley said snidely, "the same Daryl who taught you to hunt and track? The one who let you get drunk and then kidnapped? The fucker who left you for fucking dead!"

"Shut the fuck up!" Daryl shouted, finally getting angry enough to get in Riley's face, "You don't know nothing about what we went though! You weren't there! You didn't see the bullet go into her head! You weren't the one who carried her body out of the hospital. You," he said, pointing his finger in Riley's face, "weren't the one who lowered her into the ground. I fucked up, okay? I admit it! But we thought she was dead! She wasn't breathin' or movin' and she had a bullet in her head. What were we supposed to think? You don't think that I cared! I fucking cared! I cared more than her sister, more than any other person in that group and I sure as hell care about her more than you do!"

"Enough, both of you!" Beth yelled over the thunder, making the two of them stop their screaming match and eye her. The young woman eyed both men with an angry glare before stating, "Both of you fucked up! Don't blame yourselves, I don't. But you fucked up by acting this way!" Glaring at them both once more, Beth made her way back to the ladder and settled herself back against the hay bale above them, annoyed and pissed off at both of them.

The one who wanted her heart and the one who held it.

Hours later, Beth allowed herself to cool down and return to the ground floor. Riley was poking at the fire with a stick and Daryl was no where to be found. At her anxious look, he simply stated, "He's outside." She nodded her head and approached him. "Don't," Riley said, making Beth stop and look at him confused, "I know who he is to you Beth and its obvious that he cares for you – he fuckin' said so himself."

"Riley," she said softly, taking his hand in hers, "Daryl means the world to me. He SAVED me from the prison, taugh me how to survive and tried to save me from the hosiptal. But he wasn't the one who SAVEDme from death – you are. You saved me from the walkers and you have been here the last three years of my life."

"Yes but not here," he replied, pointing to her chest where her heart beat gently, "he's there and he always has been. You've never once told me you love me and I see the look you give me whenever I say it. You'll never truly be mine Beth."

"But I'm here now, see. I'm with you, I want to be with you. Seeing Daryl again is amazing, its great really because he was such a big part of my life. But now you are and as long as you still want me, I'm right here."

Riley smiled gently. "You're not gonna run off with nature boy out there?"

She smiled. "If my sister is still alive I would like to see her but I want you by my side when I do so." Riley nodded at her answer and kissed her forehead. "Now, are you going to go bat-shit crazy if I go out and speak to him?"

"I don't like him."

"Well I do and you like me," she replied, kissing his cheek gently, "I've missed him Riley." With a curt nod, Riley gave his approval for Beth to speak to Daryl. Beth made her way to the barn door and stepped outside, enjoying the cool feeling in the air that the storm had brought. Daryl stood to the side of the barn, cigarette in his mouth and his eyes on the field before him.

"Still smokin' those things, I see?" Beth joked as she neared him. He tensed at her voice before nodding in reply. "What, now you can't speak?"

"You're boyfriend'll get angry," he replied, eyes not leaving the field. He felt her at his side and tried to ignore the familiar vanilla scent she seemed to carry with her.

"Yeah well, I want to talk to you." She hadn't corrected the boyfriend statement and Daryl's heart hurt. She was with him – intimately. He had lost his chance.

"Don't have to," he spoke back, trying to get her to leave. Her hand on his arm sent shivers to his heart and Daryl turned to see her eyeing him curiously. "Failed you."

"Daryl Dixon, you didn't fail me. I failed myself. Who goes after a COPwith scissors anyway?" she chuckled.

"Stop," he said, in the same rough tone had had used all those years ago after she told him she was going to die. Their night at the moonshine shack. She had dreamed about that night over and over as well as the night at the funeral home. Had things gone differently, what would have happened between them?

"Daryl, what happened?" she asked him softly. He took a long drag of his cigarette before throwing it on the ground and stamping it out with his boot.

"You sure you wanna know?"

Beth nodded. "I have to know," she said.

Daryl sighed heavily and looked out across the field once more.

"Ok."


	2. Chapter 2

_Note: Hi everyone! Firstly, thanks so much to all the new followers to both this site and my main site. It meant a lot to me to see how many people enjoyed this story and wanted more. Next, a little about this chapter. I will start off by saying Daryl will be a little out of character but I back this up by saying "well why the hell not, its fanfiction and its Bethyl" but honestly, I think we were starting to see a softer side of Daryl when he was with Beth and that would have (could still) happened in future episodes. Also, as I am posting this pre-Season 5B, I am just kinda guessing what would happen at Beth's "funeral" so for those who read this AFTER the mid-season premier, I hope his still sounds ok. The chapter will include a flashback from Daryl's point of view and the a smutty-ness will start by the end of next chapter – trust me. With all that being said, again thanks to everyone who now follows this blog and I hope you all enjoy this chapter._

Daryl bit his bottom lip, his nervous tick as Merle had often called it and eyed the blonde girl before him. "I don't want 'ya gettin' upset or nothin', we thought you were dead."

"I understand that Daryl. Just tell me please." He nodded and settled back against the barn.

_He felt the tears in his eyes as he bent down to lift her into his arms. Dead weight – she was now dead weight. Daryl remembered the time he had carried her – bridal style, mind – into their "redneck breakfast" a few weeks ago. She had been laughing and mocking him ("Don't you dare drop me Daryl Dixon!") and he wished to whoever was listening (if anyone was even listening anymore) that she would do that again. But Beth wouldn't be mocking him or laughing at him again._

_"Daryl," came Rick's voice from behind him, "you don't have to do this."_

_"Yes, I do," he replied gently, pulling her closer so her small body rest against him. Her blood soaked hair still had the smell of vanilla in it and Daryl held back a sob. "Need to do it for her." Rick nodded and they all cleared a path for Daryl, letting him walk past the others with the small woman in his arms._

_None of the cops moved. Rick had glared at them hatefully before ushering his people out of the hospital. The ex-Sheriff could see that Daryl was having a hard time with Beth's death and even though he knew the hardened hunter wouldn't talk much about it, Rick hoped that he could somewhat help his friend through this ordeal._

_As the double doors came into view, Rick noticed an approaching vehicle and cursed under his breath as Maggie, Glenn and the others who had been heading to Washington jumped down off an old fire truck. Maggie looked slightly excited and Rick hoped to get to her before she saw her sister but he was too late._

_Maggie spotted Daryl walking out of the hospital, her sister's limp body held firmly in his arms. She cried out – screamed more like – as Daryl sunk to his knees, no longer being back to carry her without crying. He hadn't cried since the night he lost her, when he had passed out on that deserted road at the end of the trail and Joe and his men found him. He had cried then, like he was now, silently and subtly. Maggie approached him pulled Beth's head to her chest, stroking her hair gently. Daryl was reminded of how Andrea had stroked her sister's hair after she had been killed._

_"Maggie I-"_

_"What happened?" Maggie asked, sternness in her voice. When no one replied, she shouted, "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?"_

_Rick had lent down and placed his hand on Maggie's shoulder and explained what had happened during the exchange. Maggie had slapped Daryl across the face hard. Carol gasped, placing her hand over her mouth. Rick's eyes looked like they were going to fall out of his head._

_"This is all your fault!" she shouted, standing over him and Beth's body now, yelling down at him like he was a child – like his mother and father had done many times before to him and Merle, "You shouldn't have let her go! You should have grabbed her and pulled her back! She didn't have to die."_

_Daryl didn't say anything, he just took what Maggie was shouting at him while he held Beth's body close to his. Glenn came over and tried to calm Maggie down, moving her away. Rick squatted down beside Daryl. "Hey, we'll find a nice place to bury her. Father Gabriel can do the reading." Daryl nodded but still made no move to release her body. Tyreese and Sasha went in search of a sheet and returned soon after with one. Carol helped him wrap her and Daryl continued to hold her once she was wrapped. _

_"Should clean her," he whispered to Carol who simply nodded and asked Rick for some water and a cloth. Carol moved to wipe the cloth over Beth's hairline when Daryl grunted a "no" before taking the cloth from her and cleaning the blood from her hair himself. Carol watched on in disbelief as the hardened man she had tried to get to open up to her, gently and carefully cleaned the young woman's blood from her hair._

_Her funeral had been simple. Daryl had demanded to dig the grave, Rick and the others not minding at all. It seemed to help him feel a little better. That was until it came to lowering her body in. Maggie glared at him when he carried her from the car they had taken from the hospital to the freshly dug hole. Rick and Glenn both mentioned to her to be quiet. Daryl look one last look into Beth's face before carefully lowering her into the hole and standing beside Rick as Father Gabriel gave the service. It was soon after, as he had started placing dirt over her body (from the feet first, wanting to leave her face until last) that they heard the familiar sound of growling._

_Daryl tried to quicken but Rick grabbed his arm and shouted at him that they needed to get to safety. Daryl shouted back saying "Beth don't deserve this." Rick had simply replied that they would return to bury her later. Finally Daryl agreed with Rick when the walkers began to emerge from the woods nearby. They didn't stay to fight the small herd, just jumped in their various vehicles and driving off._

_Daryl had gripped the steering wheel of the car he was driving so hard he was sure his fingernails were going to start to bleed. For an hour they drove and Michonne and Tyreese trying to calm Judith in the back wasn't helping him. He slammed his foot on the break and stopped their convoy. Daryl turned the car into reserve and started off back towards where they had left her. He couldn't just leave her there, buried in a half grave. _

_He ignored Rick shouting at him from the other car and sped back to the clearing they had chosen. There were dead walkers around her grave. He could see they and had hoped that none of them had touched her body. He jumped out of the car and raced to where he had dug the grave when he saw it. And what he saw made him turn and vomit._

_Lying in the sheet, in the half empty grave, was a body with barely anything left on it. Daryl wretched as he turned, emptying his stomach of the barely there contents. The others soon arrived and Daryl jumped to his feet and grabbed Maggie, pulling her against him and telling her, "Please don't look." She sobbed into his chest as Rick and Tyreese wrapped the body up and placed it back in the grave, covering it over with fresh dirt._

_Maggie and Daryl clung to each other while Father Gabriel continued the service before Maggie passed out. Daryl handed her off to Glenn before turning and looking down at Beth's grave. He knelt down in front of it, thankful everyone else had left before he whispered so soft, he didn't even hear himself say it, "I'm sorry."_

"Daryl…" Beth whispered, coming closer to him. Daryl stiffened as she neared him, not sure he could take her touch right then. Beth frowned and turned towards the barn. "That bastard!" He followed her back into the barn as she strode right up to Riley and as he stood up from his kneeled position by the fire he went to speak "Hey Beth, whats wr-" before being cut off by a slap to his face.

"You bastard! You fucking bastard!" Daryl rose at eyebrow at Beth's language. Before today he had only ever heard her swear once – "Thats bullshit!" – and he had to admit, he liked feisty Beth. Probably a little to much, he thought as he felt his pants tighten.

"Beth, what the hell?" Riley shouted, grasping his now red cheek. Daryl didn't like how this kid had shouted at Beth.

"You put another body in the grave!" she shouted back at him, "What the actual fuck Riley! You made them think I was dead! Put another corpse in my grave to make them think I was dead!"

"They left you for dead! The only reason you're alive is because I did CPR on you. If we hadn't have come when we did, you would have been eaten by those things or worse – you could have turned Beth."

"Yes okay, fine, you saved me and you know I'll be grateful to you for that but you didn't have to leave another body in my grave. Especially one that had been eaten alive. Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think it mattered. Beth, they abandoned you."

"I was dead!" she shouted, making Daryl jump. "They thought I was dead because I was dead! You saved me Riley, I know, but for all they knew I was dead. But you still shouldn't have put another person there."

Riley hung his head, still holding his sore cheek.

"Who was it?"

"Pardon?"

"Who was it? The body?"

Riley sighed heavily and knew Beth was going to be angry with him. "My girlfriend, Anne." Beth saw red. She clenched her fist and swung at Riley's head, smacking him in the jaw once before Daryl grabbed her and pulled her away from him.

"You sick son of a bitch!" she shouted.

"She had been killed in the attack. I'm sorry Beth okay. I needed to save you, when I saw your face under the sheet. Anne was already dead beside me and I needed to save her but I couldn't…she was gone."

"And you thought it best to put her rotting and dead body in the grave of the girl you saved, the girl who you had sex with a year later? Just jumping from one girl to the other aren't you Riley?" Riley tried to speak but Daryl cut her off. "Why did you never tell me about her? Or anyone else in our group?"

"No one knew we were together. Her parents – Michael and Jane – didn't want her dating someone when there were dead people walking around."

Beth paled at the names of the people he had mentioned. Michael and Jane – the married couple who had gone off and committed suicide a week later. "I feel like I'm going to be sick."

"Beth, sweetie I'm sorry."

"Don't!" she wretched her arm from his and glared at him. "Don't you dare call me sweetie. You lied to me. You buried your girlfriend in my grave. Michael and Jane killed themselves because of me! Because you stopped and helped me and their daughter was killed."

"Beth please."

"No. You do not get to speak to me again." Beth turned and faced Daryl, fresh tears in her eyes. "Please tell me Maggie is alive."

"She is."

"And you're all held up somewhere safe?"

"There's a settlement – not far from here, maybe a day. Its got walls and great defences and a few farms. Maggie and everyone else are there. Includin' your niece."

"M-My niece? Maggie had a baby?"

"Yep – called her Elizabeth." Beth smiled at the name and lifted her eyes to meet Daryl's.

"Take me to them?" she asked softly.

"Course."

_Note: So there's chapter two. Like I said, the sexi shenanigans will start next chapter and things will start to go a little differently in Daryl's and Beth's lives. I don't know what direction I want to take Riley's character – to kill him off or not? I suppose its going to be a major plot point no matter what I decide but I would like to know what YOU all think should happen with him? I love reviews, comments and suggestions so don't forget to leave some for me to read over. I will try and get another chapter out this week but I can't promise anything because RL is rather frantic this week. Thanks all. _


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